Drake Invests in MatchaBar, Green Tea Brand Expands into Whole Foods

MatchaBar announced today that they’ll be partnering with Whole Foods to release their new Better Energy bottled matcha drink in September. Matcha tastes great (and is touted as super healthy), but what really makes this deal worth a second look is that Drake—the Rihanna-obsessed hip hop super star—has been revealed to be one of the company's main investors.

“We feel Drake not only embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of our brand, but also our company's ethos 'good things come to those who hustle,'" MatchaBar co-founder Graham Fortgang said in a statement.

If this news is surprising—this is the first we’re hearing that Drake is such a devoted fan of matcha—consider the fact that Matchabar went from being a single shop in New York City, to an expansion to Los Angeles (with two more shops set to open by the end of the year) and now a bottled drink being distributed at one of the country’s most popular grocery stores, a journey not unlike Drake’s famous dictum “we started from the bottom now we here.”

Matchabar’s Better Energy drink sources their matcha from a family farm in Nishio, Japan. It purports to give an energy boost comparable to that of caffeine with the added benefit of an amino acid called l-theanine, which is supposed to counter a jitters-inducing caffeine rush with calming effects.

Drake isn't the first hip hop artist who has snatched up an investment opportunity in the food world: Snoop Dogg funded the San Francisco-based chain Philz Coffee back in 2015. Meanwhile, LeBron James found immense success in his investment in the fastest growing restaurant chain in America, Blaze Pizza.

Could an endorsement from Drake catapult matcha to Unicorn food-craze status (if it's not there already), convincing people to abandon coffee for this healthy option and making green food a must have in fridges for the rest of the summer? Possibly. But if that doesn't happen, at least we got a glimpse into what the singer likely is sipping on when no one is watching.